


Cute & Good at Hockey

by author_abz



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Pining, Single Parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-04
Updated: 2018-10-04
Packaged: 2019-07-25 00:25:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 21,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16186271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/author_abz/pseuds/author_abz
Summary: Tyson's a single dad taking his young son to his first hockey practice. Nate's the new pee-wee hockey coach.Tyson can hear his sister’s voice in his head telling him he’s not allowed to date or otherwise fall for any of his son's teachers, coaches, guidance counselors, therapists, anything. That does not stop the phrase “climb him like a tree” from crossing his mind.





	Cute & Good at Hockey

**Author's Note:**

  * For [andersens](https://archiveofourown.org/users/andersens/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by [andersens](https://archiveofourown.org/users/andersens/pseuds/andersens) in the [boysarehot](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/boysarehot) collection. 



> Thanks so much for this prompt, andersens! It kind of turned into "if you give abz a fluff prompt, she will write an excess of domestic fluff," so.... *hands you a giant cotton candy* I hope you like it!!!!
> 
> Much thanks to the discord for names help, Emily specifically for dog name help, and fireworks and kisses and love and the whole entire world to my beta, ashisfriendly, for being the ultimate, incredible cheerleader she was, and putting up with my whiny butt and allowing me to shoot for the moon and include those last six thousand words. Worth it. And thanks to my nephew who I had in my head for inspiration for a lot of how Tyson's son acts here - you may be almost 8 now, but 4 year old you was adorable.
> 
> Oh, and I'm basing So Much of my pee-wee hockey knowledge on completely no hockey experience, but what I remember about youth soccer and t-ball and all the other stuff my nieces and nephews are into. So it could be very wrong, but also kid stuff is wide and varied, so I'm fine fudging. Life is a rich tapestry.
> 
> Specific scenes are referenced that come from the animated _101 Dalmatians_ and _Homeward Bound_ , so if you haven't seen those... spoilers? 
> 
> ENJOY!

 

* * *

 

Theo hasn’t been excited for his first upcoming hockey practice since he agreed to sign up two months ago. It was all dull acceptance and gritting his teeth and pretend excitement for Grandpa. Theo was doing hockey because he ‘has to’ - no matter how many times Tyson tells him that he _doesn’t_ have to play hockey - even though his friends do, even though his dad and Grandpa do, and even though his mom was excited to hear he’d signed up for the team. (Tyson just rolls his eyes remembering that phone conversation - all Theo had wanted to talk about was the bug in his room and playing with the neighbor girl, but when Elise heard he had signed up for hockey she hadn’t been able to stop gushing about her little baby boy in a hockey uniform.) So Theo had gone along with buying skates and pads and a helmet and sticks, only caring when he got to pick out his own hockey bag.

Tyson fully expected that he’d have to get Theo up super early today, remind him that his friends would be there, and how he has to try something out before he can quit. Instead, Tyson’s woken up by a small body climbing over him to poke at his face and pull back his covers. “Daddy, get up! Up, Daddy! We have to go to hockey!” Theo slowly hops down off the bed before remembering, “Pearl needs to go outside, too.”

He’s starting to run out again as Tyson sits up, hoarsely calling out “You can let her out!”

But Theo calls out from the kitchen, “The door’s locked!” and he has to roll his eyes.

“You can unlock it!”

“It’s stuck!”

“Did you push it?” Tyson calls, and waits knowingly in the following silence.

A few seconds pass before his son calls back, “I got it!”

Now that Tyson is properly awake, he can look over to his phone and see that Theo got up at least an hour before they actually needed to get up. He wants to pull his covers back up, but he hears Theo barging around the kitchen and decides that corralling him into hockey practice clothes will definitely eat up the spare time. He just needs coffee. Strong coffee.

\---

Most of what Theo tells Tyson as they’re getting ready for practice is just noise until Tyson’s coffee kicks in. Even then, he’s talking too fast and too excitedly for it to register properly. All he remembers is that Theo’s friend Kayden has told him a lot about their coach - that he’s one of the best coaches, that somebody said he should be pro, that Kayden wants to be a pro hockey player and plans on being the best on the team. Too tired to roll his eyes at that, Tyson asks if he’s going to go pro with Kayden.

Theo makes an outraged, scoffing sound. “ _No_ , I’m playing to get better at hockey than you and Grandpa!”

Smiling, Tyson teases, “You think you can get better than Grandpa and me?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Theo crosses his arms resolutely and literally doesn’t budge.

Of course, they’re piling stuff in to the car and he needs to move, so Dad changes the subject. “Is it just you and Kayden on the team?”

“Me and Kayden and Brayden and Tyson and - and I think Josh,” he trails away, thinking as he gets into his booster seat and lets himself be buckled in. “Annie said she doesn’t _like_ hockey and then Briana said it was _stupid_ -”

“So they’re not on the team,” he interjects gently, pulling carefully out of the driveway.

“No,” Theo’s slowed down a lot now that they’re in the car. “And Corrina wanted to play hockey, but her mom is making her do gymnastics,” he scuffs his feet on the seat in front of him.

“Well, maybe we can go to one of her gymnastic meets and she can come to one of your games?” Tyson isn’t actually sure if their age group team will even _have_ games or if there are gymnastic meets for the under - 6 group. He’ll ask Corrina’s mom later, maybe when he sees her get home - but Theo’s face gets a little more thoughtful at the idea.

“ _Yeah_ , she can come to a game and we can convince her mom she should play hockey!”

“Maybe. Or you decide you want to do gymnastics.” He says it offhand, but he really doesn’t want to be a gymnastics parent. “Or maybe you can teach Corrina hockey and she can teach you gymnastics.”

“She should get the good coach though,” Theo starts, then launches into repeating all the things Kayden had told him about their brand new coach, “he tried out for the ‘lympics or something, he said,” and about hockey, “you don’t even have to stop the game to put people in,” and the things he said that are wrong about hockey, “Kayden said you’re allowed to punch people but I told him that wasn’t true because you get in trouble when you do that.” Tyson doesn’t need to do more than nod and say “That’s right,” or “oh, really?” every so often, so the drive to the big sports complex the rink is in is quick, and he’s able to concentrate on getting a good parking spot.

Once the car is off, though, Theo goes quiet, not moving to immediately unbuckle himself and bolt out of the car like usual. “Daddy, you’re gonna tell him, right?”

Tyson turns in his seat to look at his son. “Tell who what?”

“The hockey coach!” he says eyes wide in his face, “Tell him I don’t wanna go pro!”

“If you want me to, I will. I’ll tell him you only want to be better at hockey than me and skate better and be on a team with your friends.” He raises his eyebrows in question, “Does that sound good?”

He nods, hands on his buckle, “You have your skates, right?”

Sighing, he nods, “Yes, I have my skates.”

“Okay, good!” Bolting out of his seat as fast as he can, his son doesn’t notice the effort it’s taking to not shake his head at his son.

\---

The complex is new and not the rink that Tyson’s used to going to, but they get into the building a half hour early, so they wander a little bit before finding “Youth Hockey, Under 6” listed on an event board. “Rink C, 9am. Okay, where’s Rink C?” Tyson wonders aloud, turning in a slow circle, Theo holding tight onto the hand not carrying the giant hockey duffel. He points with their joined hands, “I think that says there are ice rinks that way. What do you think?” he doesn’t need to look at Theo to know how he’ll respond, but he still watches him shrug his shoulders at the same time he nods his head. “Okay,” he says, leading them off in that direction.

It turns out that direction isn’t where the rinks are, but it is where the vending machines, food counter, and the playground like area is, so its not a complete waste. They also meet a friendly, tired mom who points them in the direction of the hockey rinks. “The figure skating rinks are on the right. You want the ones on the left.” Tyson and Theo both thank her, and Tyson readily offers up the spare change in his pocket for the coffee she’s short on quarters for. They head off in the right direction, Theo sticking close by Tyson’s side as they walk into the cooler air of Rink C and wander a bit to find the locker room, nodding to tired moms and dads watching or waiting on the ongoing hockey practice. Theo gets more than a little distracted watching the older girls play, and Tyson has to tug him along.

The locker room is empty as Tyson gears Theo up for the ice - securing all the pads, putting on the practice jersey and shorts, and triple-checking his skates are tied properly. They walk back out to watch the end of the girls’ practice, Theo absolutely mesmerized by the drills, while Tyson keeps his head up on the watch for other under-6 parents or their unknown coach. He sees a few of the parents he’s familiar with filter in and he gives them nods or waves as they notice him. For some reason he doesn’t see the coach, and it’s weird because the girls are skating to huddle up and end practice, almost all of the kids are here, and he’s sure there’s not some hidden coach’s office because there are no doors to where one would be. Theo’s asking Tyson if he can go on the ice now that the girls are clambering off, but he doesn’t answer, frowning at the rink around him. Where is this apparently fantastic new hockey coach?

He’s starting to pat himself on the back for dressing appropriately for skating and stowing his skates in the duffel because _he’ll_ probably have to take over practice for the no-show coach when the girls’ hockey coach skates over to the boards by the stands, calling, “Hey, Mackinnon!”

That’s when Tyson sees the guy sitting among the hockey parents in a well-worn navy blue tracksuit and baseball cap, wearing skates and working from an official looking, well-used, notebook portfolio. He looks up when the other coach calls his name (it must be his name, it rings a bell from all the paperwork Tyson haphazardly signed when Theo signed up), and they chat for about a minute, and Tyson gets a better look at him.

This Coach Mackinnon (he assumes) is all angles, but they’re solid, sturdy angles, and the phrase “climb him like a tree” crosses his mind even though he’s not much taller than Tyson. Maybe, Tyson thinks, it’s more that he wants to try and knock him over even though he knows he probably can’t. He’s got a square jaw and even in profile, Tyson has trouble not staring.

“Daddy, daddy, daaaaaaddy, can I go on the ice now?”

“You have to wait until your coach says you can, bud,” he answers, not looking away from the new coach who’s walking toward the door to the ice. He feels Theo deflate more than he sees or hears his sigh and suddenly remembers, “And don’t I have to go tell him you’re not going pro? Let me talk to him first.”

Simultaneously he hears Theo let out a resigned, “Okay,” watches the new coach start skating gracefully around the rink, and can hear his sister’s voice in his head telling him he’s not allowed to date or otherwise fall for any of Theo’s teachers, coaches, guidance counselors, therapists, anything. It’s hard to not watch Coach Mackinnon skate though, he’s absolutely mesmerizing, zipping around the rink in what Tyson can tell is lazy for him but would be difficult for most people - even people that spend a huge amount of time on the ice. Theo tugging on his sleeve finally jerks him out of his daze and he walks up to the boards where there’s no glass and calls out, “Excuse me.”

Coach Mackinnon turns on a dime and skates straight toward him, no smile, but a polite expression on his face. (He’s beautiful; even if he were frowning, he’d still be gorgeous.) His eyes give Tyson their full attention, and it’s a good thing Tyson had worked out how he was going to frame Theo’s strange request ahead of time.

“Are you the coach for the under-6s peewee hockey team?”

“Yes, I’m Nathan Mackinnon, you can call me Coach Nate or just Nate. Who’s your son?” A polite smile.

Slightly miffed, Tyson responds, “My name’s Tyson Barrie and my son is Theo Barrie.” There’s a small crease between Coach Nate’s eyebrows he tries not to think about. Lowering his voice he adds, “He goes by his middle name, so you probably have him signed up as ‘Greig Barrie,’ but he won’t answer to ‘Greig.’”

Coach Nate’s polite, fake smile cracks a little as his real smile peeks through. “Oh, thanks for telling me, it’ll make coaching him much easier.”

Tyson looks back at Theo, who’s gripping the bleacher he’s sitting on tightly, trying to stay put as his friends and new teammates are half dressed and or confused around him. He looks back to Nate to see he’s followed his gaze. “Can he go on the ice?”

Coach Nate glances between the two, unsure, then seems to make up his mind, “Uh - yeah,” he says to Tyson, then speaks up while skating back a little to address the whole group. “Excuse me! If you’re here for under 6s peewee hockey, you’re in the right spot! I’m Coach Nate Mackinnon, you can call me Coach Mackinnon. If anyone’s child can go skating _unsupervised_ , they can go on the ice now. If not, I’ll let everyone know when we’re starting so we can all take the ice.”

No one really moves, continuing what they were doing before Nate’s announcement, except Theo, who’s now standing in place and looking expectantly at his Dad. Tyson nods, and Theo bolts to the door in the boards, stepping on the ice, leaving the door open behind him.

“You heard when I said they needed to be able to skate unsupervised, right?” Nate asks, looking incredulously up at Tyson who’s not watching him.

“Oh yeah. He’s a great skater. Better than walking sometimes,” Tyson responds flippantly, glancing around at the other parents and kids either sitting, anxiously waiting for practice to start or still wrestling with hockey pads. He turns to address Nate again, ignoring the way his face has returned to a coach’s stern politeness. “And actually, I need to talk to you about that.”

“About your son being a great skater?”

“Sort of,” Tyson leans close, trying to block out the other parents from overhearing but not lowering his voice. “Theo didn’t really want to join the team because he doesn’t want to play hockey professionally.”

Nate’s face breaks into a surprised laugh, “What?”

“He made me promise to tell you.” Tyson says, still completely serious in the face of Nate smiling at him, amused. “He just wants to learn the rules of hockey and be on a team with his friends.” Nodding, Nate starts to skate back, but Tyson wants to make him laugh again, so he adds, “I mean, he also wants to get better at hockey than me and his Grandpa, but I won’t ask for a miracle.”

Nate laughs with his whole body, leaning back in towards Tyson and he can see clearly the laughter crinkles around his eyes as they look up at Tyson again. “You think you’re a good hockey player?” he asks, teasing in his voice.

Tyson shrugs, smiling coyly, “I’m not bad.”

Chuckling again, Nate nods and skates away toward the door in the boards, still looking at Tyson.

He has to duck his head and swallow down his gigantic grin and looks up to see Theo skating by himself off in the corner of the rink, completely ignoring how his coach is gesturing everyone together at the boards. Tyson gestures wildly to him and calls out, “Theo!” pointing him where he needs to go. Theo sees everyone congregating and skates as quickly as he can over to Coach Nate, actually catching himself from falling by grabbing onto Nate’s leg. Nate takes it in stride, moving a little bit back so Theo can be next to the rest of the group and he can address them all together.

Coach Mackinnon addresses all the kids first, asking them if they’re ready to have fun and play hockey. All the kids cheer with him, but he won’t let them come onto the ice until he directly addresses the parents. Tyson hears his voice get lower and more official - sounding, like he’s trying to pre-empt parents giving him crap. So Tyson smiles widely all through his spiel about how they’re welcome to stay and watch but don’t have to, and how he’s teaching them the basics of the game, not creating future NHL-ers. Nate meets Tyson’s eyes at that, a smirk almost peeking through, and Tyson smiles broadly before ducking his head. When he asks all the kids to join him on the ice with their sticks, Tyson digs around in his hockey duffel before sheepishly handing a stick to Theo over the boards as Nate smirks at him.

Most of the parents stay in the bleachers for practice, talking over every little thing Coach Mackinnon does and how their kids are doing. Tyson sits apart from them, catching up on reading some articles he had bookmarked on the tablet he brought along. Even though he’s actively trying not to pay attention, his eyes are still drawn to how well Nate moves, even among kids who can barely skate, and he appreciates the things the coach is having them do, even if none of the other parents agree.

First, all of the kids are just tasked with skating around the rink with their stick; Tyson’s pretty sure Theo’s the only one who doesn’t fall down, and feels unreasonably smug. Then the pucks come out, everyone skating around the rink with one before Coach Nate goes between them all to pair them up for passing drills. He thinks Theo might be paired with Kayden or Tyson or one of his other friends that have stuck in a little group, but when he looks up Tyson sees Nate paired his son with the only girl in the group.

The passing exercises take a really long time, but when Tyson zones into what Nate’s actually saying, he hears the kids being quizzed on the basic rules of hockey as they travel up and down the ice. When there’s about fifteen minutes left in the session, Nate again sorts them arbitrarily, this time into teams. “Scrimmage time! No goalies.” The announcement from Nate makes Tyson’s head shoot up and he stops trying to multitask, getting up to stand by the boards and watch.

The game is absolute chaos, but all the kids look like they’re having fun, from the broad smiles across their faces, like Theo’s, or from the screams of delight and laughter. Watching the scrimmage unfold Tyson sees that Nate’s actually keeping the chaos level in check as much as it can be, as he’s skating along beside them, coaching them on what to do with the puck or trying to steal it, and every time they make it down one side of the ice he tells the kids to switch out so everyone can get an equal amount of time on the ice. It’s almost like they’re doing real shift changes except some of the kids don’t understand it, and everybody actually stays on the ice since the scrimmage area is so small. Tyson can hear some of the other parents complaining about it, but he thinks it’s brilliant - it’s one of the things about hockey that confused Theo the most, and just having the kids jump in and do it means they’ll all learn a lot faster - even if it involves a lot of chaos at the start.

When Theo gets his stick on the puck, Tyson finds himself shouting encouragement from where he is, and then as he misses his shot - doesn’t feel like stopping. He yells - quieter, but loud enough - for Kayden to steal the puck, for Josh to shoot the puck, and for the girl on the team, Vanessa, to skate faster, faster - she almost caught up to steal that puck! After a few minutes he feels kind of ridiculous, yelling encouragement for literally all the kids on the team, even when they don’t touch the puck or when they fall down in an attempt. Except he’s noticed that when Coach Nate coaches and encourages the team, he’s using more names than he was before, so Tyson keeps doing it, making sure every kid on the ice gets a shout (how did he learn all these kids names? How social has Theo actually forced him to be? He doesn’t remember meeting half of them but knows their names anyway.), but listening for when Coach Nate is giving instructions and encouragement to not shout over him, and then the other parents have joined him at the boards, shouting happily at their kids.

No one ends up scoring, although there are some near misses, and Coach Nate announces that next time they’ll work on shooting and more scrimmage work. “Good job everybody! I’ll see you all on Thursday.” The kids traipse off the ice to their parents, and Nate puts the goals away, gathering pucks back into the bucket.

When Theo reaches Tyson, he’s too excited to sit down and too excited for Tyson to understand half of what he’s saying, so he just keeps nodding and saying “Yeah, I know!” and “I saw” over and over as he’s trying to take his jersey and pads off. Except he’s still bouncing around, not letting Tyson get a firm grip on any of his clothes so he just looks disheveled, and Tyson gives up and decides to wait him out as the bleachers around them empty.

The girls on the ice next have shown up, and judging by their skin tight outfits and high buns, Tyson guesses there’s a figure skating group of girls using the ice next. He thinks that’s a weird way to schedule the rinks, but from what he saw of the schedule earlier, it’s possible they were just booked to capacity. He watches the girls - they look somewhere around 10, so a few age groups above Theo - file onto the ice and warm-up like it’s second nature to them. Then Theo’s in front of him, his arms caught in his jersey from trying to undo a clasp on Theo’s pads when a voice makes him jump.

“Hey - thank you,” Coach Mackinnon is standing over them both, a bag slung over his shoulder and an easy smile on his face.

Tyson glances up, but re-directs his attention to the stubborn clasp. “Thanks for what? You’re the one who did a great coaching job. We should thank you. Right, Theo? Thanks, coach.”

Theo twists his head around to Nate as Tyson finally undoes the clasp holding the last hockey pad in place. “Thanks for practice, Coach!”

Nate smiles, “You’re welcome - I hope you had fun.”

“I did!” Theo intones before grabbing his stack of clothes from his duffel, skates still on. Tyson grabs him to stop him.

“Well, Mr. Barrie, I wanted to thank you anyway for helping me with the kids’ names, it helped.”

He looks up and smiles at him properly, still holding Theo by the arm. “You’re welcome. It’s a lot of kids to know at once. And call me Tyson _please_.”

He nods and smiles a bit more broadly, turning his attention to Theo suddenly, “Yeah, but it was easy to remember Theo! You didn’t fall down at all and you kept the puck on your stuck pretty good!” He pauses briefly as Theo smiles up at him, “We’re gonna have to fix that.”

“What?!” Theo shrieks, enraged, as Nate smiles and Tyson laughs, grabbing a foot to take off his skates.

“Yup. You have to learn to fall down.”

“Guess you’re just gonna have to trust your coach, aren’t you, Theo?” Crossing his arms and pouting just makes the adults laugh again, and Tyson adds, “Yes you are, Theo. You trust your coach to teach you all the important stuff.”

“I guess,” Theo mumbles, and Coach Nate readjusts like he’s getting ready to leave.

“Hey,” Tyson says quickly, forestalling him. “Can I ask you something?” Nate redirects his attention to Tyson, nodding, and while his brain supplies, ‘Are you single?’ his mouth asks, “Do you know of any kind of open skate times? The general event schedule out front is overwhelming, but I was hoping I could go skating with Theo sometime after practice.”

Smiling and nodding in agreement, Nate adjusts again before answering. “Yeah, the rink schedule is pretty booked up - there was supposed to be a separate 5 - 6 - 7 year old team in addition to this one, which was supposed to be 5 and under, but with the numbers they just made them one group with the older kids going into the kindergarten/first grade group. Or I’d suggest Theo be moved up to the older group he’s so good.. But I can barely get ice time for my private lessons, and the only open skate times are on Saturday when they’re really crowded.”

Tyson nods, but can’t help asking, “You do private lessons?”

“I’m trying to, but I’ve only got two students and can’t really get any more since there aren’t any open ice times.

“That sucks,” he says sympathetically.

Nate just shrugs, but smiles at Tyson anyway. “Yeah, but I’ll see you guys on Thursday, right?” Tyson nods, but Theo’s distracted by what the figure skaters are doing on the ice now. “Great, see you then. Bye, Theo!”

Theo jerks out of his trance, then yells back, “By Coach Nate!”

Trying not to watch him walk away, Tyson makes short work of the skates he had momentarily forgotten on Theo’s feet.

\---

The next two weeks of practices go by quickly, and even as Theo is instructed to try out the goalie position because of his oddly long limbs and learning to fall on the ice without hurting himself, he’s telling Tyson that three times a week practice aren’t enough, he wants to go _every day_. Smiling, in his most dad voice possible, Tyson explains that there’s plenty of time for everyday practice in the future, telling him that this way he can still do a bunch of non-hockey stuff with his friends. Theo ends up only half buying it, and Tyson doesn’t blame him - even though logistically daily practices would be a nightmare, he wants them to be daily too.

It isn’t just to do with what a hunk the coach is, although he’s a big part of it, the practices all end up being as well thought out as the first one, focusing on different varying hockey and ice skills, with a scrimmage that tries its best to work in that knowledge while giving everyone a chance to play. There are enough kids on the team not only for two scrimmages going at once (even though they never do that), but for there to be two entirely different teams, and every time Tyson marvels that Nate’s coaching these kids by himself. A few times, when they chat after practice - either when Theo is winding down or they’re packing up - Tyson’s had to stop himself from offering to be an assistant coach, starting immediately. (Theo still makes him bring his skates to every practice.)

To Tyson, it feels like he and Nate hit it off right away (“you can’t date Theo’s coach,” Victoria’s voice echoes in his head), and they do end up chatting after every practice, but a lot of the other parents are starting to chat with Coach Mackinnon now too. Some of the single moms in the group are even noticeably done up when they get to practice, and sometimes they even take off their bulkier jackets to reveal tight outfits and a bit of cleavage when they chat with him after practice. Tyson waits patiently, trying not to look on too jealously to gauge Nate’s reaction and what the other parents are doing. (None of the dads really try to flirt with him, but they do go on tangents about their sons’ hockey ability and why Nate should give him more special one-on-one attention.

When he does allow himself to watch Nate’s face, though, Tyson’s impressed by his calm demeanor as he takes the parents’ questions, smiles politely at the moms’ flirting, and explains calmly to all the dads that each child deserves special attention and he’s trying to give that to every child. He’s so smooth about it Tyson would be impressed even if he hadn’t heard Kayden’s mom talking about how this is Coach Nate’s first time coaching. He’s either already had training to handle annoying people and their dumb repetitive questions, or he’s got a natural talent for it.

Most impressive, though, is how it’s not just a line about each kid getting special attention - he actually does give individual coaching attention to all of the kids. It’s clearly very hard and something he makes a sincere effort to do, even as it takes him a while to actually remember their names (their _first_ name, because during the second practice everyone was told to put their last name and practice jersey number onto their helmet) and works with everyone equally, even though some of the kids need a lot more direction and time spent explaining things than others do.

Theo doesn’t need a lot of direction, having already mastered a lot of the very basics, and a lot of what Coach Nate ends up doing with the likes of Theo and Kayden are things like adjusting grips on their sticks or encouraging them to go after the puck when they’re already halfway there. Tyson’s noticed, though, that sometimes Coach Nate will coach Theo a little, then start to tell him something else, his face lit up, and then when Theo looks up or asks a question the expression disappears from his face, replaced by a guilty one and he skates away rather quickly to talk to another kid. It makes Tyson smile, and from what little lip reading he can do, it seems like Coach Nate’s inclined to teach Theo more advanced things, and it’s something he could watch every day.

But they makes three times a week work, and eventually brave the open skate on Saturday, because Theo’s dying to show his dad some of his new moves, and Tyson just really wants to skate with his son again. It is incredibly crowded, not by the kids he sees all the time for practices, but by people just in jeans hanging out with friends or going on first dates or enjoying the weekend by themselves. Theo’s dressed in forgiving play clothes, but Tyson’s wearing his nice jeans and a dark green polo shirt because they’re going out with some friends for a play date and dinner later.

Together they make slow circles around the rink, Theo happily showing him different skating techniques and describing them. Every time Theo shows him something, Tyson pretends he’s just learned it too, and replicates it as best he can in his street clothes. They’re both smiling and laughing when Tyson looks up and sees Coach Nate standing by the door onto the ice, watching them. He’s not dressed for skating, instead wearing nice dark jeans and an old faded t-shirt, but his small, soft smile is one Tyson’s seen before. It gets bigger and a little more sheepish when he and Tyson make eye contact, but Tyson smiles wide.

He and Theo are still almost halfway around the rink from him, so he points him out to Theo, watching his face light up as he races around people to reach where he’s standing. Tyson’s several strides away still when Theo reaches him, yelling excitedly, “Coach Nate! Coach Nate!”

Nate leans down to talk to Theo and says something that Tyson can’t hear. When he reaches them, they’re both laughing - Theo’s his real, delighted laugh, and Nate’s is the measured, conspiratorial one adults usually only use around devious pre-schoolers.

“Coach Nate, nice you see you here - again.”

“Nice to see you, Tyson. It looks like Theo’s been teaching you some moves?” He winks conspiratorially at Theo, who giggles.

He nods seriously, “Oh yeah, he’s a great coach. Must have learned from the best.”

Nate’s smile softens, and he looks down at Theo going backward and forward in place next to the boards, and clears his throat. “So, open skate’s not too crowded for you?”

“Nah, just crowded enough,” Tyson goes behind Theo and pushes him into the boards to make him stay out of people’s way. “I think if we had more room, Theo’d have me doin’ laps and drills the whole time.”

Theo giggles again, trying to wiggle his way out of Tyson’s grip, and Nate half addresses Theo, half addresses Tyson. “Well, if you guys _did_ want an extra practice … I was just at a meeting and a slot opened up.”

“Yes!” Theo says loudly, pushing back from the boards, although Tyson holds him against going too far.

“When is it?”

“Thursday, right after our normal practice.”

Tyson lets Theo go, trying to keep an eye on him, and leans against the boards next to Nate. “So the slot’s yours?”

“Yeah,” Nate leans forward over the boards too, his eyes also following Theo. “I mean, half an hour of the slot’s mine. I had to fight the girls’ figure skating coach on it, and we each get half.”

“A half hour,” Tyson looks down at how close together their hands are on the door, “that’s not a lot of time for a private hockey coach.”

Nate shrugs, “No, but it should be enough time for a four year old just trying to beat his dad.”

Tyson snorts, “Good point.”

“Just thought I’d ask you first - before I let the rest of my shortlist know.”

They meet each other’s gaze, and Tyson can feel his heart beating extremely fast as he reminds himself that Theo doesn’t need extra coaching, doesn’t want to go pro, he doesn’t really want the extra expense for private coaching, and he’ll have to re-arrange his and Theo’s entire schedules. “Okay, put us down.”

The broad smile is back and it’s contagious, “Great. And if you want, you can take your skates out of your bag and join me and Theo - you’re not half bad after his coaching.”

Pushing himself away from the boards, he says, “Thanks, I might take you up on that.” He interrupts Theo on his next passing and directs him to Nate. “See you later, Coach.”

“Bye, Coach Nate!” Theo yells happily.

“Bye, Theo! Bye, Tyson.”

They all wave cordially at each other before heading off. It takes Tyson several slow, leisurely laps around the rink before his heart rate goes back to normal, and he doesn’t stop thinking about the way Nate’s face looked asking him to accept: open and hopeful.

\---

Tyson laid out both his and Theo’s outfit the night before the first individual practice is scheduled, but he still ends up changing three times before they leave the house. “Theo, which one do you think I should wear?” he asks finally, and Theo answers him through a mouthful of cereal, “The blue one.”

Everything else about practice is completely normal that day, except Tyson gets progressively more nervous as it gets closer to the end, and during the scrimmage, several goals are actually scored. When practice is over, Nate still goes around gathering up loose pucks and talking to parents, but he doesn’t put away the nets or other equipment, and the more Tyson watches him, the more Nate avoids his gaze. Tyson does make Theo get off the ice when practice ends, though - making him stand by him as he laces up his skates and organizes their bags.

“Theo, are you ready?” Nate’s skated over towards them when Tyson’s halfway through lacing his second skate.

“Yeah!” Theo says excitedly, walking a few steps toward Coach Nate before stopping and turning back to Tyson, who smiles.

“Go on out with Coach Nate, I’ll be there in a minute. Theo crosses his arms stubbornly, and Tyson laughs, pointing behind him to Nate, who’s holding open the door for them. “I promise I’ll be out there, I’m almost done putting my skates on.” He goes back to lacing them up quickly before Theo can complain again.

“C’mon, Theo, you can help me make sure I’ve got all the pucks together, okay?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Tyson sees Theo traipse happily back onto the ice, and Nate smiling at his enthusiasm, and he thinks he sees Nate glancing back at him, too. He nearly knots his laces instead of tying them, but a minute later he’s opening the door to the ice himself and trying not to think too much about the parents still here packing up their stuff who’re watching them.

Easing onto the ice he feels calmer than he has all day, and ends up rushing over to the corner where Coach Nate and Theo are putting pucks in a bucket, and when Theo looks up, pretending he can’t stop by flailing his arms around until he _does_ stop in front of him, all at once, snowing him. Theo shrieks and then frustrated, yells, “Da- _ddy_!”

Coach Nate is suppressing a smile when he meets Tyson’s eye. “Did you bring a stick?”

“Yeah,” Tyson starts skating back toward the stands, but Nate shifts over to stop him.

“Hey, Theo,” he says, still casually blocking Tyson, “think you can beat your dad over to the bleachers?”

Theo looks up at them both, and Tyson raises his eyebrows at his son, who then says, “Yes,” a broad smile on his face.

“Okay, Nate says, moving next to Tyson, inconspicuously holding onto his arm. “You’re going to start from here and make a lap around the ice. Got it?” Theo nods and Nate meets Tyson’s gaze again, lightly raising his eyebrows, and he understands. “On your mark,” he starts seriously, as Tyson and Theo square up as if they’re on a starting line. “Get set… go!” His hand is still on Tyson’s arm as Theo shoots off skating fast, and after about a four-second head-start, Nate meets Tyson’s eye, gives him a small nod and lets go of his arm.

Even with the headstart, Tyson doesn’t skate full-out against Theo and only manages to lose to him by about half a second. It takes two seconds to grab Tyson’s stick, and then Nate’s skating up to them. “That was great Theo, but I think you can really cream your dad - so lets work on skating a little.”

Theo agrees, and by the time the rink is truly empty except for them, all three of them are skating laps with their sticks, starting and stopping suddenly according to Coach Nate’s instruction. After they do it for a while, though, Tyson can tell how frustrated Theo is getting, and interjects something Nate’s saying about fast acceleration to ask if he can try, getting into place at the starting line they’ve been using.

Coach Nate furrows his brow in confusion, but Tyson manages to communicate wordlessly over Theo’s head why and what he’s doing through some universal parent signals. Coach Nate doesn’t look like he totally understands, but he gets enough of it to go along with Tyson.

Nate counts him down and watches Tyson trying to zoom around the rink using the new technique. Theo looks thrilled when Tyson makes it back around the rink, but Nate’s face is unreadable beyond his small smile. “Good,” he says neutrally, then “How about some passing drills?”

The rest of the session goes on in much the same way, working on a skill until Theo gets bored or frustrated, and then moving on. It feels different, being on the ice with Coach Nate instead of watching him from the bleachers or chatting after practice, more like they’re equals. Nate’s by far the better skater between them from what he shows Theo, and he tells them what to work on - but Tyson knows Theo. He can tell when he’s only pretending to listen and when he’s frustrated or tired, and he finds himself interrupting Nate to make sure Theo gets it, or going up to him right after and correcting his grip or stance because he didn’t adjust it how he was supposed to.

In the half hour they have they don’t actually cover a lot of things, but they do come back and repeat the same few things. Tyson is passing back and forth with Theo when the skating instructor walks into the rink. Just like in group practice, Coach Nate claps his hands for attention, making Theo and Tyson stop the drill.

“Okay, time for cool down laps,” he says clearly, skating over to where Theo still is and starting the lap with him. Tyson leaves them to it, going around to gather up the pucks they used, but Theo shouts after him.

“You have to cool down too, Daddy!”

Both Coach Nate and Theo watch him as he skates over, and with a small smile he tells Tyson, “It’s the healthy thing to do, right Theo?”

“Right!”

Coach Nate is still looking at and smiling at Tyson as they start skating again, all even with each other across. Tyson smiles back, matching their stride and looks at Theo skating slightly in front of them. “What else did you learn today, Theo?” Nate asks, and they continue what Tyson assumes was their previous conversation. Theo keeps talking at Coach Nate’s encouragement, re-telling the day of hockey so far, with helpful hints and questions from his coach. As they skate along, Tyson and Nate accidentally bump into each other’s sides a few times and their hands brush a little more accidentally than that.

After the required number of cool down laps, Theo’s instructed to gather the pucks while Nate and Tyson put away the nets together, the figure skater and her coach getting ready in the bleachers.

“Hey - I’m sorry.” Tyson says softly as they set the net down off the ice.

“For what?”

“You know - interrupting you, trying to take over coaching, being _that_ Dad.”

Nate grins at Tyson as they skate to the second goal, “You’re not _that_ Dad. I mean - you were - but only because I needed it.”

“You’re a great coach, you didn’t need it.”

They set down the other goal and Nate steps in front of Tyson. “Theo’s my youngest student. I _do_ need those reminders. I’m not kidding when I say he could be playing up an age group.”

Tyson nods, unable to think of anything else to say, and they skate back to the entrance by the bleachers. They untie their skates in silence, and once Nate’s slipped on some slip-on shoes he says, “See you guys on Saturday, then.”

“See you then,” they answer.

\---

The situation works out great for the first month they have regular practice and the individual sessions. Theo’s confessed to Tyson that sometimes he gets bored in his regular team practice, but now he gets to think about what he and Coach Nate are gonna do later. Even Theo’s Thursday daycare, originally kind of frustrated by the change in schedule, tell Tyson that it worked out so that the lady who runs it needed that time off for a weekly doctor’s appointment anyway. So any guilt Tyson’s brain offers up that he’s just using these sessions to spend time with the cute coach end up getting squashed pretty quickly, reminding himself that it really is best for everyone involved.

He continues to take to the ice with Theo, and he and Coach Nate have worked out a system where they shape the session together. It’s not an explicit plan, and they don’t talk about it outside of practices, but they figure it out between them pretty quick, glancing between each other for a nod of approval before doing something, or outright asking seemingly rhetorical questions like “what do you think Coach Nate wants you to do next?” or “maybe your dad would like to try?” to Theo.

They also nudge each other a lot under the guise of small hip checks, and occasionally holding an arm and raising an eyebrow. Except that’s not the only time they touch, as they manage to brush hands almost constantly on Theo’s cool down lap, or when they’re just standing next to each other. Even though they’re both wearing gloves, Tyson can’t help but feel they’re doing something illicit, and he definitely wants it to keep happening.

But one Monday, Tyson gets home after dropping Theo off at pre-school to a clear sign that things are done going well. Sitting on the front step with an assortment of luggage and a broad smile is his sister.

He doesn’t bother parking in the garage, instead getting out to make a beeline for the front step.

“I think Pearl needs to be let out,” she says conversationally when he draws level with her. “Or are you mean to dogs now?”

Tyson maneuvers his keys and steps past her. “She’s fine, she’s just freaking out because there’s a new person here.”

Victoria stands with her shoulder bag and follows him inside. “Or she knows it’s me and is already excited - hi Pearl!” The tiny brown blur of a dog comes skittering into the room, trying to jump up and lick her face. She kneels down and let s the tiny pomeranian jump all over her, petting the ball of fluff and rubbing her belly.

Tyson leaves her and the dog to say hello and goes back to the porch to bring in her bags and put them in the guest room. When he gets back to the living room Pearl rolls over to trot to the couch, jumping up and letting Tyson pet her. “Sometimes sisters tell their brothers when they’re flying in for a visit,” he says, watching his sister get up off the floor.

“Yeah, and sometimes brothers live somewhere you can get cheap weekend flights more than a day in advance. And _sometimes_ aunts like to surprise their nephews.”

“He’ll be thrilled you’re here.” Tyson smiles.

“Even without a present? Even though I didn’t bring along Joe or my skates or my magic deck of cards?”

He shrugs, “Yeah, but not having your skates won’t get you out of talking about hockey or going to practice.”

Victoria rolls her eyes and flops back into her armchair. “Hockey practice? Didn’t I go to enough of those with you as a kid? I thought I was done with that.”

“You don’t have to _do_ anything, just come with me to the rink, Theo practices for an hour then we come home.”

“We just sit in the bleachers during practice? As adults - that’s all we do?”

“Sometimes we even talk to the other parents.”

Victoria scoffs and Tyson laughs. “I thought Theo didn’t like hockey?”

“He doesn’t _really_ , but he’s having fun playing on a team.” He sees V arch her eyebrows and adds, “He does! He likes playing, he likes being _good_ at something, he likes skating.”

She continues looking suspiciously at her brother. “It still sounds like dad is making him do hockey.”

“We made a deal - I’m sure he’ll tell you all about it. Tell me about you. Who took you to the airport?” Tyson watches her face change from shrewdly suspicious to broad smiling as she talks about her boyfriend.

\---

Tyson and Victoria talk and catch up, going around the house doing small chores both because Tyson was going to do dishes, laundry, and toy clean up anyway, but also so that he can avoid Victoria figuring out he’s ‘met someone’ because technically he hasn’t, because Tyson doesn’t date Theo’s teachers or coaches. But he does get out of his sister just how serious she is with her boyfriend (very), how long she’s staying even though she hasn’t bought her return ticket (about a week), and that she’s been keeping tabs on Elise almost more than he has. They end up talking about Theo most of the time until he has to be picked up from school, and they end up getting into an argument over whether to wait a year for kindergarten or not. In the end he says “you’ll have to ask Theo” a lot, which ends up annoying her even more, but he’s adamant. “He gets a say in what goes on in his life.”

She rolls her eyes and crosses her arms in response, but then the alarm on Tyson’s phone goes off for picking up Theo.

When Tyson parks in the pick-up line at pre-school he doesn’t do more than step out of the car and lean lightly on the door, giving a small wave to the teacher, since Victoria also stepped out of the car, and seeing her, Theo squeals, “Aunt Veebs!” and pelts toward her.

Reminding them to put on their seatbelts and telling his sister to just sit in the back, Tyson drives home, where all he has to do the rest of the night is fill in a few holes in Theo’s stories. There’s a push to stay up late and watch _101 Dalmatians_ , which Victoria swears she’s never seen, but Tyson looks at the clock as Theo pulls out the dvd case and insists it’s bedtime.

“No, Daddy - Aunt Veebs hasn’t seen _101 Dalmatians_! We have to watch it!”

“We can watch it tomorrow night.”

“But I wanna watch it _now_!” Theo yells and stomps his foot.

“You have hockey tomorrow morning,” Tyson reasons, keeping his voice level.

“I’ll get up in time!” he whines, still moving toward the dvd player.

“But will Aunt Veebs get up in time?” he shoots a look at his sister who catches on a second too late, stretching out her arms and yawning unconvincingly.

“Yeah, Theo, I’m tired. I think I’ll just fall asleep if we watch it now.”

Theo’s inserted the dvd into the player, ignoring them. “No you won’t.”

“ _Theo_ ,” Tyson starts, “it’s bedtime. Aunt Veebs wants to read you a story, go to bed and take you to hockey in the morning.”

Theo pouts, arms crossed, not moving, and Victoria shoots him a small glare. Into the silence he adds, “Would Coach Nate want you staying up late and being tired for hockey?” He watches Victoria’s eyebrows raise and Theo’s whole body slump.

“No,” Theo mutters dejectedly.

“No,” he repeats, keeping his voice neutral and firm, “he wouldn’t. So let’s get ready for bed so we’re _all_ ready for hockey tomorrow.”

Head hanging, Theo traipses off down the hall towards the bathroom. Victoria’s not looking at her nephew’s retreat, instead focusing on her brother piling up blankets, and not bothering to whisper, says, “You’re using his hockey coach to get him to go to bed?”

He shrugs noncommittally, but with conviction tells her, “It works.”

\---

In spite of the protests that she can’t drive Tyson’s car, doesn’t know where the rink is, isn’t registered as an acceptable pickup/drop-off guardian for Theo, and that she doesn’t know how to put his equipment on - Victoria insists on taking Theo to hockey practice the next morning by herself. She argues that they were going to make her go anyway and Tyson’s already missed a full day of work from her unexpected appearance. There _are_ a few client emails niggling at the back of his brain, but what made him agree was how excited Theo was when his Aunt Veebs announced it. She makes a face as he double-checks the hockey duffel to make sure all of his equipment is in there, but doesn’t comment otherwise.

Holding the door open, car keys outstretched, Tyson stops himself from telling them to say hi to Nate for him and instead calls, “Have fun!”

They leave and he feels wrong-footed, stepping into his office and logging into his computer, but he tries to make the best of it. Starting off with a problem client doesn’t work like it usually does, so to try and stop thinking about what Victoria is doing - whether she’s talking to Nate or not or if she really is gossiping with the other parents or - what Nate thinks that he’s not there - he starts to answer all his easy emails, doing those simple tasks to get him in a groove. Eventually, he’s able to tackle the few more difficult people in his inbox, but he’s still thinking about Nate and practice and what Victoria will say, so he sets up an out of the office automated response email for the rest of the week and puts everything away a good fifteen minutes before they’re expected back.

He makes a half-hearted grocery list waiting, and half an hour later his sister and his son burst through the door, Theo practically vibrating with happy energy while Victoria’s taken on the look of an exhausted single mom. (It’s a good thing her boyfriend’s so great, he thinks, because she would be a terrible single mom.) She doesn’t mention how practice went or anything about what she did, just tossing the hockey duffel away from her towards the laundry room.

While Tyson unpacks the bag properly, Theo helps him and excitedly tells him all the cool drills in practice today and happily says that even though _he_ didn’t score a goal in scrimmage, he _passed_ to someone who did! Tyson gives him a high five and asks if he could hear Aunt Veebs cheering for him. Victoria chimes in that she was getting coffee and didn’t see anything. He rolls his eyes at his sister, but feels a lot better about how practice went today without him there.

\---

The rest of the day is spent doing whatever Theo and Victoria agree on - they play video games, build with blocks, go through their stack of board games, and watch movies - Victoria teasing Tyson the whole day. Theo still stoutly defends his dad through her ribbing, but he laughs at a lot more of her comments than he used to. Once they actually start watching _101 Dalmatians_ , Victoria confirming she’s only ever seen parts of it, he actually joins in Tyson’s teasing of his sister. Although he falls asleep somewhere in the first half of _Mulan_ , squished comfortably in between his dad and his aunt.

When the movie’s over and Tyson’s carried Theo to bed, he and Victoria tidy up the living room and kitchen, planning out the rest of the week. She’s a little put out that he insists Theo still go to preschool on his scheduled days, “It’s preschool, Tys,” and thoroughly annoyed he similarly won’t budge on Thursday’s hockey practice.

“Come _on_ , Tyson.”

“He _likes_ going to practice - you saw how happy he was this morning.”

“Tyson, I wasn’t paying attention to practice, I was trying to find coffee. That building makes no sense.”

“Well come with us on Thursday and I’ll show you where the good coffee is.”

She scoffs, “I don’t think that building is capable of making good coffee. It’s evil.”

“It’s not. Plus - he has his individual practice on Thursday, he has to go.”

“ _Individual_ practice? Wait - you got him _private lessons_?” Her voice rises in outrage and Tyson has to shush her.

“ _No_ ,” he shoots back in a hushed voice, “it’s just his team coach staying after practice to work on some skills with him.” He shrugs nonchalantly, but his sister’s still shaking her head.

“That sounds like private lessons to me. I can’t believe you signed him up for private lessons, Tyson! He’s _four_. And he doesn’t even care about hockey!”

“Veebs - he has fun! He loves his coach! And it’s -” he stops himself short of saying ‘it’s my favorite thing to do every week,’ and blushes beet red realizing he was going to say it _and_ it’s the truth.

“It’s what? Good for him? Something he’ll appreciate later?”

Tyson shakes his head, “No. Just come with and you’ll see, okay? Now did you have plans already for the weekend or do you maybe want to go to some little events in the city?”

His sister frowns, but accepts the change in subject so they can roughly plan out the rest of the week.

\---

On Thursday, Victoria wakes up easier than she had on Tuesday, but Tyson and Theo are still waiting on her when it comes time to leave because she’s trying to make coffee. With all the bags in the car and Theo successfully buckled in, Tyson ends up shoving her out the door with only about a mouthful of coffee because, “I’ll buy you some when we’re there.”

They’re not the last of the team to show up, but Coach Nate’s already been besieged by several parents and normally they’re almost fully suited up by the time he walks into the rink. Tyson catches his eye for a split second and smiles a greeting as they pass before getting Theo into is skates and pads. Victoria does sit beside him and help fasten things, which makes it go quicker. Some of the kids are by the door waiting to go on the ice when Coach Nate says it’s okay, but when he extricates himself from the crowd of parents, he comes over to where Tyson’s watching Theo wiggle around at Victoria’s request.

“Now stand up and wave your arms around. Okay, now jump up and down!” Theo’s giggling and doing what his aunt tells him when Nate comes up behind him.

“Hey.”

“Hi Coach Nate!” Theo squeals, turning around. “Can we go on the ice now?”

Nate glances over to the door and the waiting kids, then back to the three of them still in the bleachers. “We’re all gonna go out on the ice together, okay?” He says in his measured coaching voice before addressing Tyson almost as neutrally. “Are you feeling better? I thought maybe you were sick on Tuesday.”

He smiles widely at him and begins to answer, but Victoria cuts in to answer first, “No, I just made him stay home and work.”

To which Tyson can only shrug and nod; “Yeah.”

“Okay,” Nate says, and Tyson can see his face close off. “I guess it’s time to get practice started. C’mon, Theo.” Then he turns towards the rest of the group, leading them back to the door and onto the ice, his face open to the kids he’s happily coaching once he’s out there.

Tyson’s stomach constricts painfully, and not wanting to think about why, he taps Victoria’s leg. “Let’s go get coffee.”

\---

Any resentment Victoria had over having to get up early again for a hockey practice disappears when Tyson hands her a large latte from the coffee cart on the other side of the building. So when they make their way back to their rink he convinces her to actually pay attention to practice, and when they get to the scrimmage, she’s up cheering along with Tyson. When he starts to lace up his own skates, she raises her eyebrows at him, which he ignores.

Tyson can’t stop smiling as he stands at the boards watching kids file off the ice, Nate saying goodbye to each one as they go. When it’s just Theo left on the ice, zooming around by himself, Tyson steps up to the door where Nate’s standing.

“So are you and Theo still - “ Nate vaguely waves his hands between them and then in the direction of the ice, “today?”

“Yeah, of course - unless something came up and you can’t.”

“I can, I just didn’t know if you…” he trails off and looks over at Theo skating his way slowly through the pucks left on the ice. “We should go join your son.”

Tyson just smiles back at him as he steps onto the ice, getting Theo to do a quick lap with him.

“That’s the worst skating I’ve ever seen!” Tyson suddenly hears Victoria heckling.

Skating past Nate as he sets up a net, he says, loud enough to carry, “Ignore her.”

“Careful you don’t fall down, old man! You’ll break a hip!”

Tyson skates past her, giving her the middle finger so that Theo and Nate can’t see, yelling back, “Love you too, Veebs!”

Joining up with where Nate and Theo are, Tyson slows down too slowly and jostles into Coach Nate, smiling. “What are we doing today, Coach?”

Nate picks up a puck with his stick and starts to juggle it, his smile spreading to where Tyson’s used to seeing it, and says, “Puck movement,” clearly enough for Theo to hear, and makes sure he sees the puck before he drops it and fires it into the net in a fluid motion. “And shooting,” he says, grinning at Theo’s astonished face and glancing at Tyson who’s trying not to look impressed. Theo skates closer to Nate and where the pucks are gathered and tries to maneuver a puck onto his stick like he just did and pushes it around instead, while Tyson puts one on his stick and starts juggling it, catching Nate’s eye as he does so.

“Daddy you can do that too?!” Theo asks excitedly.

“Yep,” he answers, smirking as he tosses the puck over to Coach Nate.

He deftly catches it on his stick to juggle a few more times before gently tossing it in Theo’s direction - who hits it with his stick instead of catching it. Nate shoots a small smile back at Tyson before he says, “You can work on that later, bud, we want to work on moving the puck down the ice without losing it.” Then he proceeds to line some pucks and small orange cones up and shows Theo how he wants him to move the puck through them. Tyson goes through it to show him a second, slower time, and the session really begins, and they alternate between different puck drills and shooting, but mostly puck work, because Tyson suspects Coach Nate’s easing him into shooting since he always gets really excited.

Victoria hardly heckles at all after the first couple of minutes, making Tyson randomly remember her and wonder if she’s even still there. She always is, but mostly Tyson forgets and they have a regular session until the end.

Coach Nate starts the cool-down lap, and he and Theo follow, but Victoria’s waiting at the boards for them and stage whispers to Theo as they go by, “Theo! Theo, wouldn’t it be cool if Daddy and your coach did a race?”

“Yeah!” Theo bursts out enthusiastically, turning around to the two of them skating behind them.

Tyson glares at his sister before he looks over at Nate, who’s wearing a small, slightly smug smile as he skates to bump into him slightly. “If your dad wants to we can race.”

He watches Nate’s face for a long second and he thinks he can see the joyful challenge Nate’s issuing him, and when he looks back at Theo he sees the excitement in his face, so he agrees. “Okay.”

He skates back to where Victoria is and tells her she’s in charge of judging the finish line, and asks Nate and Theo if one lap works. They both agree, and once Nate and Tyson are set up, Theo counts them down. Tyson finds himself grinning over at Nate around “one,” and Nate’s grinning back at him, but by the time Theo says “go,” he knows they’re both in it to win - but after a few strides he already knows he’s not going to win. Nate’s already whipped past him, and Tyson goes faster than he has in years trying to catch up, and he’s still several seconds behind him crossing the finish line. Victoria’s heckling again while Theo laughs, and Nate’s smiling widely as he skates back towards Tyson and Theo, nonchalantly announcing it really is time for their cool down lap.

As they go around the rink again slowly, Theo in front of them, ignoring the noise made by the figure skating coach and their pupil as they prepare to take the ice, Tyson says, still breathing kind of heavy, “I didn’t realize how out of shape I was - thanks for that.”

Nate chuckles, bumping into him again. “No, you’re in great shape - I’m just a fast skater.”

Their hands knock together and Tyson finds himself smiling again. “You _are_ a very fast skater.”

They both chuckle and finish the cool-down lap pretty quickly, stepping off the ice as the figure skater takes it. The other skating coach has a sour expression and is shooting daggers at Coach Nate, so he doesn’t have time to do anything other than tell Theo he did a good job today and he’ll see him next practice before he has to take the ice again, quickly gathering up pucks and putting the nets away. By the time Tyson and Theo are back in their street clothes ready to go, Nate’s still on the ice, getting chewed out by the other skating coach, and Victoria’s ready to go, practically dragging them out the door, so all they manage is a half-hearted wave goodbye.

\---

On the drive home Theo nearly falls asleep, so when they are home, Tyson makes sure he eats a quick lunch before letting him take a nap. Victoria’s very helpful for lunch and assuring Theo that she’s probably going to take a nap herself, but once he’s safely in his room and out of earshot she turns on Tyson triumphantly, arms crossed.

“You didn’t tell me you’re sleeping with Theo’s hockey coach.”

He blushes bright red, “I’m not.”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

“I’m _not_.”

“But you really want to.”

He lets out an aggrieved sigh, “I don’t date Theo’s teachers or coaches, remember.”

“I said teachers - and it’s his _pee-wee_ hockey coach.”

“Veebs - ”

“And he’s really into you.”

Tyson has to close his eyes and take a breath, “Veebs, don’t say that, no he’s not.”

“You’re super into him because he’s cute and good at hockey and even if I was blind I could tell that he’s really into you too - probably because you’re cute and and good at hockey or something.”

Tyson stares at the floor near Victoria’s feet for a few seconds, his jaw set as his insides do a lot of clenching and flip-flopping in quick succession. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” he says eventually, going back to the kitchen to make some lunch for adults and after a few minutes of just the sound of clanking pots, Victoria breaks the silence to ask about what they’re gonna do in the afternoon.

\---

The rest of Victoria’s visit goes by quickly, and miraculously - without further mention of Coach Nate - most likely aided by her absence at Saturday’s practice since she had plans with some friends in the city most of the day. (Tyson and Theo are late to that practice, though, since they had stayed up late the night before coming back from the festival they’d attended.) She ends up leaving late Monday night, and lets Tyson and Theo drive her to the airport and even walk her to the security line. Theo clings onto her for a long time, asking her over and over again when he’s gonna see her next, and don’t forget you have to go and watch that video, okay? She hugs him back and promises she will, and he’ll see her at the reunion, and I love you.

Tyson leans into her side and wraps an arm around her, his other around Theo, and squeezes, giving her a kiss on the cheek. “See you, sis.”

She scoffs, putting Theo down, and hugs her brother tightly. “You can’t get rid of me that easily, bro.” They both chuckle and give the hug a little squeeze. “I just want you to be happy, okay?” Victoria whispers in an incredibly sincere voice before pecking him on the cheek and letting go.

“Love ya, Veebs.”

“Love you too, bro,” she swoops down to give a last squeeze and a kiss to Theo. “Love you, Theo.”

“Love you, Aunt Veebs.”

“Bye!” She waves, swinging her shoulder bag up to carry and rolling her other bag along behind her as she walks into the security line.

Theo watches her go sadly, and Tyson picks him up and sets him on his hip, walking them over to a still open food place for a snack to share as they watch her walk through security, and she turns back for a final wave in their direction.

On the way home Theo falls asleep and doesn’t wake up when Tyson carries him in or when he changes him into his pajamas. Tyson’s pretty dead on his feet as he walks around getting ready for bed, but even if he forgets to brush his teeth or lock the back door after letting Pearl out, he makes an effort to lay out everything for hockey practice the next morning so hopefully they’re not as late as they were on Saturday.

They’re not really ‘late’ to practice the next morning, but Tyson chocks that up to only having green lights the entire drive there. As soon as Theo’s laced up and on the ice, he goes to get the largest possibly coffee, and ends up spending a large portion of the practice with his head in his hands, just listening to the sounds of Coach Nate’s voice, pucks and sticks, and children yelling - somehow it’s a soothing combination for him.

Most of the practice is dedicated to a scrimmage because their (very few) games start next weekend, and Tyson does want to watch, but his eyes refuse to open until Coach Nate tells everyone it’s time to cool down. He watches as they all move slowly around the rink, for once Theo lagging behind in the back of the group by Coach Nate. Watching, he ends up meeting Nate’s eye and they hold it for a second before Nate’s returns to the twenty-some young kids in front of them. He tries to tamp down on the warm feeling in his chest, but then he hears Victoria’s voice in his head saying “really into you,” and he lets it brighten his day.

Off the ice it takes longer than usual to get all of the pads and skates off, so they’re still sitting, hockey duffel open next to them when Coach Nate escapes his persistent ring of parents. They chat politely, but Tyson’s not really paying attention to more than how close Nate is sitting to him and the cadence of his voice. He hears himself say, “Tired, very tired, we’ve had a busy couple of days.” But by now Theo’s all dressed and is leaning, tired, on Tyson, and he makes to leave, telling Coach Nate they’ll see him Thursday.

Back home, Tyson decides they can both change back into their pajamas, letting Theo climb into bed with him and his laptop, where they spend most of the rest of the day. Tyson manages to answer a few of his more urgent work emails, and Theo brought some coloring books and crayons up with him. But most of the day is spent with Theo curled up into Tyson’s side watching _101 Dalmatians_. They watch it twice because they both kept falling asleep on the first watch and ended up giving in to the nap.

The next day things get back to normal with Theo off to preschool in the morning and Tyson to work in his office. Thursday morning for hockey practice they’re ready and set to go in the rink before half of the team even shows up, ready almost once Coach Nate walks in and makes a beeline for them. They make small talk for a while, and as Nate gets pulled away by another parent asking him a question, he realizes it’s been a while since it’s felt this easy and normal. Practice goes by without a hitch, Theo fully invested in the scrimmage and Tyson makes sure to write down the details of their upcoming games so Theo can actually ask his friend Corrina to come and see him play in a game.

He’s distracted listening to some of the other parents speculate on who Coach Mackinnon is going to play, so it takes him longer than usual to lace up his skates. By the time he’s walked over to the boards, Theo’s alone on the ice, Coach Nate waiting at the door of the ice for him.

“Hey, sorry about last week.” Tyson tells him.

Nate looks confused, “Sorry for getting your butt kicked in a race?”

“No,” he smiles, “Sorry for the confusion of somebody else bringing Theo to practice and then coming to heckle me - I would’ve let you know, but I didn’t know, and Theo really wanted Aunt Victoria to see him play hockey.”

“Aunt Victoria?” Nate’s stopped in place, staring at Tyson.

“Yeah,” he feels off-balance all of a sudden, confused. “My sister Victoria flew in out of the blue last Monday and was here for like a week.”

Nate’s relaxes and he lets out a breath, “ _Oh_ , I just thought she was Theo’s mom or your girlfriend - or something.”

Tyson shakes his head in disbelief. “No, Victoria’s not my ex… and I don’t have a girlfriend - or a boyfriend.”

“Oh, well - ” Nate swallows and grips the boards behind him, “I don’t have a girlfriend or a boyfriend either.”

Tyson’s brain and mouth are trying to sync up, ‘ _now_ ,’ his brain says, ‘ _this is the time to make a move!_ ’ He opens his mouth to say who knows what when Theo screams from behind them, “Daddy! Coach Nate!”

He steps around Nate and looks at his son. “What?”

“I wanna practice!”

Nate’s on the ice now, and Tyson follows him, “I had to apologize for not introducing him to Aunt Veebs.”

“Oh. Coach Nate, Aunt Veebs is cool.”

“I bet she is,” Nate agrees, passing a puck to Theo. “You wanna shoot?” Theo takes a big swing at the nearly stationary puck in his excitement, and his stick clips it at a weird angle, passing it to Tyson, who does hit it straight into the goal.

\---

It doesn’t hit Tyson until several days later that he didn’t actually ask Nate out, and that he still doesn’t actually know whether he likes him back. All he really knows is that he’s single and into guys too. Or, his brain reasons as he watches Nate coach during their first of four games, maybe he only said boyfriend because Tyson said it first. They’re just as friendly as before, but Tyson doesn’t get any chances to do something more with all of Coach Nate’s duties and Corrina and her mom actually coming to the game to see Theo. There’s a team meeting when the game’s over to tell everyone that there’s no practice on Tuesday, and Tyson can’t do more than wave goodbye to Nate after that.

Corrina and Theo have a playdate for the rest of that Saturday, and then there’s a birthday party the next day with Theo’s entire preschool class. In spite of the busy weekend, things are easily back on track Monday, with Theo willingly going to bed on time and staying there the whole night. The next morning though, he’s sluggish and mopey on his way to daycare, and when Tyson picks him up that afternoon he’s so uncooperative and pale that Tyson carries him straight to the car.

There’s only an hour between Theo telling his dad he doesn’t feel good and the first time he throws up. In between trying to make sure Theo’s as comfortable as possible, maneuvering buckets, changing bed sheets and pajamas, Tyson texts with some other parents and it seems like over half the kids from Theo’s class are throwing up too. He also calls the pediatrician who reassures him that it’s just the flu and after a few days he should be fine. She gives him a list of worsening symptoms to look out for and some helpful tricks to keeping his son hydrated and comfortable.

After Postmating some extra pedialyte and cans of chicken and stars soup, Tyson takes more blankets into Theo’s room, and an extra chair, and he uncovers the tv in his room so he can insert the _101 Dalmatians_ dvd as soon as possible. When Theo’s awake and miserable Tyson sits next to him stroking back his hair slowly, and when he’s asleep, Tyson tries very hard to make absolutely no noise as he moves around the house cleaning up and eating some food himself. At some point he sleeps, either in his own bed or next to Theo’s.

He does make a call on Wednesday to the rink hockey practice is held at to let them know Theo won’t show up for practice or his ‘individual lesson’ (as it always says on his bank statements) on Thursday. Theo’s a lot more restless and uncomfortable as he keeps throwing up, trying to refuse the food and drink his dad gives him, whining and half crying about his stomach hurting, being too hot, being tired, and being bored. Tyson cycles through some of their favorite Disney and Pixar movies and musicals to try and placate him, but they only get one play each after _101 Dalmatians_ spanned most of the previous day, running its course. Bedtime is one of the worst

ever, as Tyson gives the very sick Theo a bath to try and get him more comfortable, and he cries the entire time _and_ he throws up in the tub.

Soaking wet and exhausted, Tyson pulls out _Mulan_ for Theo to watch going to sleep, and although he wants to lay down in bed beside his son and go to sleep, he trudges off to take his own shower. Thankfully Theo’s asleep when he emerges, and he adjusts a few things in the room and turns off the movie, knowing it’ll play non-stop tomorrow, and goes to bed himself.

Fixing himself a giant coffee the next morning, Tyson keeps checking the video baby monitor he’d turned back on for Theo’s room, disbelieving that he’s still asleep. He’s not sure how long it’ll last, so he throws on the most readily available pair of sweatpants and long sleeve shirt and tries to quietly do more laundry, get more pedialyte and toast ready for Theo, and maybe even answer a few quick work emails. He hears Theo go to the bathroom before anything else, and takes up a water and a pedialyte for him.

Theo says he’s done puking, and Tyson says he hopes so, but he’s staying in bed today too, so they lie down next to each other and watch _Mulan_ all the way through, Tyson pushing the hair back from Theo’s head slowly and steadily the whole time. He falls asleep during the credits and Tyson’s tempted to lie down all the way and join him when he thinks he hears a knock on the door. He can’t really remember if he ordered more from Postmates, so he opens the door in his stocking feet, scrolling confused through his Postmates app.

When he looks up, Coach Nate is standing on the sidewalk a few paces back, looking sheepish. “Hey,” Tyson nearly drops his phone. “Nate.”

“Hey.”

“Sorry we weren’t at practice today, I called the office - ”

“No, I know.”

“I was planning on paying for the session anyway - ”

“Oh, don’t - that’s not why I’m - ”

“It’s just that Theo’s sick.”

“I know,” Nate says, and he steps back up to the door, towards Tyson. “I came to see how he’s doing.”

“Oh,” all of Tyson’s motor functions seem to have left him. “Okay.”

Nate steps closer again, making towards the door, “Can I come in?”

Tyson both shakes and nods his head before he says, “Sure,” and remembers he’s standing in front of the door. Once they’re inside, Pearl skids past them into a pile of clean blankets left on the couch.

“What kind of dog is that?” Nate asks, sounding excited.

“Oh,” Tyson yawns, “she’s a pomeranian. Pearl the pomeranian.”

“That’s so cool,” he says, watching her burrow into the blankets.

“Sure, but she’s left Theo’s bed, which means he’s awake and whining.”

“She sleeps in Theo’s room?” he follows into the kitchen where Tyson is pouring more coffee.

“No, only on special occasions, and only when Theo’s not being annoying.” He takes a giant gulp of coffee before grabbing more pedialyte and a recently washed blanket. “Guess he’s up now.”

It doesn’t take long to walk down the hallway and into Theo’s bedroom, but Tyson’s brain is trying to catch up to the fact that Nate’s here. Nate’s behind him, and he came to check up on Theo? He can hear Theo making sad, pitiful noises before he pushes the door open.

“Daddy, Pearl left,” he’s crying small and exhausted tears.

“I know, bud.”

“I wanna cuddle with her.”

“I know, maybe she’s come back in a few minutes.” He sits on the bed next to Theo, pulling the blankets back up around him and checking his forehead. “How are you feeling, did you sleep?” Theo groans a little and nods. “Do you feel like you need to throw up?” He shakes his head, and Tyson shows him the pedialyte.

Theo starts to shake his head again, new tears forming, “No, Daddy, I don’t want it.”

“I know, bud,” he says, pushing hair back off his forehead and then wiping away a few of his tears. “But if you drink this and don’t throw up you can go back to water, okay?”

“Okay,” he croaks, shifting up a little to drink.

Tyson takes the straw out of one of yesterday’s pedialytes and sticks it in the new one. “One loopy straw,” he says, and hold it up for him to drink.

He hears something coming from the doorway, and remembers that Nate’s there, and turns to look and sees him looking down the hallway. Then he hears the tiny clatter of Pearl running across the floor until he sees her burst into the room and jump up on Theo’s bed, snuggling immediately into the other blanket Tyson had just brought up and set on the bed. Nate’s watching with a small smile. “Theo, look who came to see you,” Tyson says.

Theo looks up and sees Nate standing awkwardly in the doorway. “Coach Nate,” he croaks dejectedly, “I’m sorry I missed practice.”

Nate shakes his head, “Don’t worry about it, bud, we didn’t really have practice so many people are sick. It was more of a free skate.” he walks forward into Theo’s room, stopping next to Pearl perched on his bed and petting her gently. “How’re you feeling?”

Theo gives an unenthusiastic shrug. “I’m tired,” and he looks over at Tyson still holding the mostly full pedialyte.

He goes on for him, “It’s been a rough couple days, but he’s feeling better, I think, right?” but Theo just drinks some more pedialyte, making a face, and Nate smiles at him when Theo catches his eye. Tyson stands up and moves pillows so Theo has to hold the bottle himself as he’s readjusted to sit up. “What do you think about toast?”

His son flops dramatically back onto the pillows and whines, “I want pancakes.”

“Toast with peanut butter?” Tyson offers, and Nate laughs, still scratching Pearl between the ears. Theo groans in complaint, so Tyson amends, “Toast with peanut butter _and_ we turn on _Mulan_?”

He pouts for a second and then says, “Okay.”

“Okay.” Tyson grabs the remotes from where he had stashed them earlier that day and turns everything back on in a few clicks. Pearl moves from the foot of the bed up to lay down up against Theo’s side. He’s already zoning out to the opening music of the movie, and Tyson doubts he’ll even stay awake long enough to eat the toast he’s promised. Tyson glances back over at Nate who’s turned and is watching the opening credits of the movie, but when he picks up the empty bottles by the bed he glances back and meets Tyson’s gaze. “I’m gonna go fix your toast now, okay?” Theo doesn’t respond.

“I guess I should probably go and let you rest. I hope you get better soon, Theo.”

He refocuses his eyes back onto Nate. “Bye, Coach Nate.”

“Bye. I’ll see you later.”

Tyson follows him out of the room and drops the bottles on the closest available countertop, following Nate into the foyer.

Before Tyson can say anything, Nate says, “Sorry for just coming over like this.”

He shakes his head, smiling. “Don’t be. You wouldn’t know to look at him, but he’s happy you came.”

“Yeah, well - ” Nate looks away awkwardly. “He’s a great kid, and when I heard he was sick… I just wanted to make sure he was okay.” He looks up and meets Tyson’s eye. “Make sure you were okay.”

Tyson nods, “I’m okay - just tired. Really tired.” He pushes himself towards the door and goes through it, immediately forgetting why he did it, but Nate follows him out on the porch regardless.

“I hope you get some sleep soon. Practice isn’t as fun without you and Theo.”

“Thanks,” Tyson says warmly, leaning in the doorway, smiling at Nate.

He looks over at his car sitting in the driveway, then back at Tyson, stepping forward. “And you’re a really good dad.”

He has to laugh at that, “Oh, man, can you please tell me that when I’m not exhausted so I’ll believe you and remember it.”

“Okay,” Nate responds, quietly, and when Tyson looks at him properly again, he’s startled that his now standing less than a foot away from him. The sudden kick of adrenaline he feels isn’t fear, though, it’s excitement.

“You’re a really good hockey coach,” he blurts out awkwardly.

“Thanks,” Nate says again, and he’s standing so close they’re breathing the same air, and then Nate kisses Tyson softly, their lips pressing together a few seconds before he pulls away.

“Sorry,” he says, breathless, “I shouldn’t have done that.”

He starts to turn away, but Tyson catches his wrist, a little breathless himself, “Just don’t blame me when you get sick,” and he pulls him back towards him so their lips meet again. Even just with their lips connecting everything feels right, and Nate’s hand that Tyson isn’t holding comes up to grip Tyson’s hip, while Tyson’s other hand moves to the back of Nate’s neck. Leaning into the kiss, their mouths open to deepen the kiss, Nate positioning Tyson up against the door frame.

They kiss leisurely for a few more minutes until a distant _thud_ from inside the house brings them back to their senses, but Tyson doesn’t let go of Nate’s wrist. “You have my phone number - right?”

“I have your phone number _and_ your address, Tyson,” he grins in response, kissing him again at the corner of his mouth.

Tyson pulls Nate’s arm close to him, letting Nate lean his body up against Tyson, pushing him into the wall. “Text me later so I know I didn’t imagine this.”

“Okay,” he agrees, before leaning in for a long, lingering kiss. “I’ll see you later, Tyson.”

\---

It doesn’t even take Nate a full eight hours before he’s texted Tyson how much he enjoyed their kiss and wants to kiss him again “(all over your body)” he writes. Then after that text, he sends three in a row saying that of course the first priority is getting Theo better and Tyson getting some sleep - he just wanted to text Tyson because he told him to and it was all he had been thinking about. Tyson texts back that the fourth _Mulan_ viewing must have been the charm because Theo hadn’t thrown up for the rest of the day and went to sleep no problem. But now that Nate mentions it, he thinks he’ll have to think about Nate kissing him all over when he takes a shower and then when he goes to bed. Nate responds with a few emojis - the eggplant, the peach, the tongue, water drops, and even a kissing faced one - which makes Tyson smile, shaking his head at what a dork he’s into, then his brain catches up to register what the emojis mean and he has to text back “I’m too tired to be this turned on,” and less than a minute later he gets a text back saying goodnight with another kissing face.

By the time Saturday’s game rolls around he’s almost back to sleeping normally and Theo’s feeling well enough to suit up - even if he spends most of the game on the bench. Tyson and Nate have texted frequently the last two days, and even though only half of the texts have been dirty, when they make eye contact across the ice and Nate smirks, Tyson’s face goes pink.

The game goes really well by under-6s standards - no one falls down skating and they even manage a goal. Apparently the team’s a little too good, and there are rumors going around behind Tyson in the stands about too-old kids, but somebody brings up the coach and how _he’s_ too good, and Tyson ends up moving.

Afterwards a big chunk of the team goes to Dairy Queen to celebrate, and Tyson and Nate snag a table together with Theo, his friends Kayden and Brayden and their moms. The moms tease Tyson about knowing everyone who works there, but then Nate turns to him, saying he must know where the bathroom is, so can he show him? Tyson does know where the bathroom is and walks Nate right past it around the corner to let Nate push him up against the wall and kiss him senseless. Their blizzards are almost entirely melted by the time they get back to the table, but that just means Tyson gets to scoop out all the cookie dough from the bottom to eat it directly, and he gets talked into taking a box of dilly bars home.

That night, Nate calls Tyson and they end up talking for a while about whether they’re just making out and hooking up, “Which I’m fine with, if we are,” Nate says in a rush, or if they’re dating. Tyson can imagine all the women and men all lining up to date Nate and responds a little too quickly, “Dating - I mean, if you’re good with that.” So they decide they are and what it looks like to date when one of you has a four and a half year old and the other is that four and a half year old’s hockey coach. They agree to be discreet, but then end up having very tame, vanilla phone sex. “There’s time for the really fun stuff,” Nate reassures Tyson after he complains. Tyson responds, “I’m holding you to that.”

The next week they text everyday and after they see each other in person at practices they call, mostly just talking, but there’s at least one other instance of phone sex. After the team’s second game they don’t all go out somewhere, but with so many people around, they manage to wander into a dark corner in a small dead-end hallway where they take just enough time to exchange hickeys.

Comparing schedules doesn’t really let them hang out while Theo is at school or daycare due to work, so they make due a while just sneaking off to dark corners and phone conversations. But then Nate invites both Tyson and Theo to go to a dog park with Pearl and his own dogs, and it ends up being a really great date. Nate introduces Tyson and Theo to his golden retriever, Duke, and his german shepherd, Cox. “That’s not his name!” Tyson says, laughing. But Nate insists it is, it’s a good name, and Tyson just laughs more. “You know if anyone hears Theo talking about your dog I’m getting in serious trouble.” Nate looks put out by Tyson’s reaction, but Tyson sneaks in a kiss on the cheek with Theo running after the dogs.

Once they get to their cars with dogs safely inside and Theo buckled securely, they meet at the back of Tyson’s car for a thorough goodbye kiss. They get pretty handsy for being in public and trying to keep it a believable length of chatting time, and Nate groans loudly when they move apart. “You _have_ to call me tonight,” he groans in frustration.

Tyson’s hand fall back onto the hem of Nate’s shirt and he puts his head into his neck. “Just come over.”

“What?”

“Just come over tonight after Theo goes to bed. I’ll text you.”

“Are you sure?”

He takes a good look at the apprehension on Nate’s face, and responds sincerely, “I’m sure.”

\---

Theo’s bedtime routine was never down to a science, not caring in what order pjs were put on or teeth were brushed - so long as it all got done, but tonight’s the first night Tyson regrets his current parenting path. The two books Theo picks out are really long ones, and even though he’s falling asleep before the end of the first one, he doesn’t lay down until he’s heard the entirety of both stories. Tiptoeing out of his room, Tyson makes himself wait until he’s in the living room before he looks at any texts he’s missed from Nate (three completely unrelated ones), and texts him back that Theo’s in bed. After he presses send he remembers, and sends a follow-up text saying “DON’T KNOCK - he’ll wake up.”

A few seconds pass and he gets a response, “Do you want me to text?”

“Yeah,” he sends, “Text me when you’re here.”

Tyson’s considering if he should change or clean up the kitchen or living room when his phone buzzes again. “Here,” it reads, and he goes to the door and opens it, smiling.

“Hey, I’m early.”

Tyson moves forward to kiss him hello. “I don’t mind. We just can’t be too loud.”

“I can do that,” Nate mutters, smirking at Tyson as he pushes his shoes off. He follows him into the house, but when Tyson stops and turns to look at him, Nate keeps walking until he’s close enough to kiss him.

Tyson kisses back but pulls away. “Quiet. We have to be quiet.”

Nate nods but continues to move so his hands wrap all around Tyson, pressing them together, and kisses under Tyson’s jaw. “Set a timer for how long we have to be quiet and I won’t make a sound until then.”

He kisses his neck again. “I can’t make a sound either,” he turns to say, his hands already under Nate’s shirt.

Nate kisses him slowly, once, and says, “You won’t.”

Several different kinds of excitement and terror run through Tyson as he leads Nate to his bedroom, but Nate does keep quiet, and makes sure Tyson stays quiet too. He kisses him almost lazily, but as Tyson squirms more and starts to moan, Nate moves to taking off his clothes, and shows he wasn’t exaggerating when he said he wanted to kiss Tyson all over. And he does stay quiet on top of making sure Tyson only gets as loud as the occasional gasp. Except eventually Tyson can tell he’s deliberately teasing, checks the time and makes the bed squeak and creak barrelling back into Nate’s space. “Time’s up - pants off - now.”

Afterwards they cuddle a bit, but Tyson reminds him, “You can’t sleep here, though.” Nate sighs in resignation and starts to get up, but Tyson takes hold of his arm. “You don’t have to _go_.” he looks around at the clock, “It’s too early to go to bed anyway.”

This gets Nate to lean back towards him, giving him a slow kiss. “So we should stay in bed?” he asks, grinning.

“We could hang out in the living room. Put our pants on and hang out for a while.” He looks around trying to remember where his ended up, but gives up and heads to his dresser, pulling out two pairs of sweatpants and tossing one to Nate.

Putting them on, he complains, “These pants don’t fit.”

Tyson just shrugs and throws him one of his sleep shirts. “This probably won’t either, but I like getting to see all of your junk,” he smirks, walking out of the room. He makes a detour into the kitchen to grab them both a beer and sits down barely a measure away from actually sitting in Nate’s lap.

He takes a long swig of his beer before he says, “Hey, tell me about that camp you’re trying to start and that one dude…”

Nate makes an exasperated noise before he can even finish. “That’s not the topic I’d pick after sex, but,” he sighs and takes another drink of beer.

“Well what do you wanna talk about?”

Nate shrugs and then after a second he says, “Theo?”

He laughs, then says, “What about him?”

“What’s he like? What does he like, is he a good son, that stuff.”

Tyson grins, “Theo’s the best kid - but you’ve met him, he’s just a regular four year old - he loves dogs and superheroes and playing hockey and playing with his friends and books and school. He’s just a normal kid.”

“Is his favorite movie _Mulan_?”

“No, his favorite movie is _101 Dalmatians_ \- his second favorite movie is _Mulan_. And he’ll tell you that - you know him. I think he actually likes you better than me.”

“You’re his _dad_ \- of course you’re the best.” Tyson smiles and takes another drink when Nate asks, “What about his mom? She doesn’t rank higher than you, but he probably likes her better than he likes me, right?”

Tyson sits back a bit, his face closed as he answers, “I wouldn’t count on it - he sees you a couple times a week and he only gets a phone call from her maybe once a month.”

“How often does he see her?”

“Once or twice a year depending on how her cash-flow’s going.” He pauses, “Why, has he brought her up?”

Nate shrugs awkwardly, “Just when other kids mention their moms - stuff like that.”

Tyson nods as Nate takes a gulp of his beer, but as he opens his mouth he interjects, “Yeah, he’s my biological son - we conceived him the old-fashioned way, and until he was actually here, we were going to try and make a happy little family out of it.”

Nate looks sheepish, “I - ”

“It’s okay, I’m used to the question.” Tyson says matter of factly.

They sit in silence for a minute or two, finishing off their beer when Nate turns to Tyson, opening his mouth, but Tyson throws a hand over it, and makes a “shh” motion with his other hand.

Nate’s confused for a second, but then they hear, “Daddy?” and Tyson pushes Nate flat down onto the couch, half lying on top of him, still covering his mouth.

“Daddy?” They hear Theo’s voice again, sounding teary. “Daddy... “ he pleads, and Nate looks concerned, but Tyson holds up his hand and silently counts down, ‘One, two - _three_ -’

“Teddy, did Daddy go to bed?” He inhales noisily, hiccupping a little, “Okay, I got you.” And they hear him slowly walk back down the hallway, bumping off the walls and then they hear his door click.

Tyson takes his hand away from Nate’s mouth and breathes a huge sigh, face-planting into Nate’s chest. “Thank God,” he moans.

“What the hell was that?” Nate whispers, outraged.

“Sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night and he comes looking for me - but he’s not usually allowed in my room, and if he sees me it takes forever to get him back to sleep - so he’s got a teddy bear out here that works.” He whispers in explanation.

“What? That doesn’t make any sense.”

“He goes back to bed with his teddy bear to help him fall asleep - so even if I am here I let Teddy handle it.”

“Even if he has nightmares?” Nate’s still whispering in disbelief.

“Yes - especially if he has nightmares.” Nate frowns at him, but Tyson just scooches up so he’s level with his face, adding, “Which worked out well since we didn’t want him to see you.” He kisses the frown still on his face. “Did we?”

After a frustrated pause he responds, “Not _tonight_.”

“Okay,” he says, kissing him again, deeper this time. “I think you might need to bring a gym bag over, these clothes don’t fit you… you should take them off.”

Grinning at each other they make their way back into the bedroom, where they are not as quiet as they probably should be, and cuddle for longer than is probably safe, and when Nate leaves he ends up wearing the too small shirt of Tyson’s anyway.

\---

Neither Nate or Tyson are particularly good at planning out the details of a discreet relationship, especially when they still see each other a few days a week in public. So even though they try and spend some evenings together after Theo goes to bed, they still end up finding a dark corner after the third hockey game, and they still have phone sex on busy days, and it feels really weird for either of them to use the phrase ‘boyfriend.’ With the number of upcoming practices and games and individual sessions winding down, Nate - and then Tyson, start suggesting fun group outings for Tyson and Theo and Nate, which they try and reason to Theo are just a fun extension of his individual session, and they try not to think about how it will play as an example of how good of a dad Nate could be.

They go to the dog park a little too often, so Theo is almost as attached to Nate’s two dogs as he is to Pearl; they brave the open skating together on Saturday which turns into a disaster - although luckily no one got hurt. Tyson manages to beat Nate bowling, but Theo beats both of them when they use the bumpers, and Nate refuses to tone down his golf game playing against a four year old, ruining it for them. When Theo’s class goes to the zoo he talks about it so much he talks them into going one weekend. And after the final hockey game, but before the last practice (“this is the stupidest schedule I’ve ever seen,” Tyson complains. “Yeah, you didn’t see the ones they came up with before this one.” Nate says seriously.), the three go out for an early dinner, and after the server jokes about them being on a hot date, they cannot convince him they’re together romantically.

“It’s a night out with our son,” Nate tries in earnest, holding Tyson’s hand across the table.

The guy nods, jotting down the rest of their order. “ _Sure_.” So as Theo’s coloring his placemat, there’s some significant eyebrow raising and eye contact conversation that happens before Tyson throws up his hands, smiling, and says, “ _Fine_.”

Then Nate proceeds to ask, “Hey Theo, what kind of people does your dad date?”

He has to think about it a second, but says confidently, “Um… he dated mom, and sometimes he dates nice guys, and sometimes he dates nice ladies.”

“Is he dating anyone right now?”

Theo shrugs, dispirited, “I dunno. Daddy says he has to make sure the guys are more than just nice for me to meet them because I’m special.”

Tyson chimes in with, “Exactly, because you _are_ special. You’re my teddy bear.”

Theo smiles at that, but Nate just looks confused before continuing. “So do these ladies and guys need to be special too?”

Another shrug, “I don’t know, I never meet anybody.”

“Oh, okay,” Nate says in a final sort of voice, watching Theo and Tyson swap crayons. “Do you think _I’m_ special?”

He looks up, confused, but Nate’s smiling at him and his dad’s smiling at the tabletop. “Are you and Daddy dating?”

Looking between the two for an answer he sees Nate nodding, and then his dad confirms, “Yeah, we are. Is that okay with you?”

He looks over at Nate seriously, then back to his dad, barely containing his smile, and back again. “Yeah, it’s okay. Just no mushy stuff.”

“Mushy stuff?” Tyson echoes, mock outraged, “What’s mushy? Is this mushy?” He leans over and kisses Nate chastely for a few seconds, listening for Theo’s reaction.

“Yeeeuuuuch!” He says right on cue, and when they turn to look at him he has his hands over his eyes.

Tyson chuckles and says, “We’re done now.”

He’s going back to his crayons and Nate was going to steal another kiss just because he can, when Theo asks, excited, “So do we get to hang out all the time?”

“Yep,” Nate answers him, smiling at Tyson.

Theo’s cheering himself and doing a victory dance in his seat when the server comes back with their drinks. “Oh, what - ” he says sardonically, “did he find out he’s getting a new baby brother?”

Theo gasps so loudly people up to three tables away turn their heads, and he shouts, “I’m getting a baby brother?!”

Nate keeps opening and closing his mouth, panicked, but Tyson manages to tell Theo to sit down before telling their server sarcastically, “Thanks a lot.”

\---

In the final practice of their under-6s hockey season, Coach Nate makes it as fun as possible, letting every kid choose their favorite drill to do, and when there’s time left at the end, the parents start lobbing suggestions at him. He shoots down all the options similar to “scrimmage,” and a parent Tyson doesn’t actually know well suggests _Coach Nate_ pick what they do.

Then the preschool mom who always has dirt on people suggests that the coach show off his stuff, but to make it more interesting, he should face off with a parent - and didn’t Tyson play hockey before? And doesn’t he carry an adult sized duffel bag with skates and a stick? They end up doing a kind of obstacle course of different drills, and Nate beats him handily in all of them.

Even after getting it through to Theo that a baby sibling is _not_ coming up soon, he’s still happy to have Nate over most days of the week - almost entirely monopolizing Nate’s time while he’s there. Sometimes Tyson pulls him away by asking him to help with dinner or being unnecessarily ‘mushy’ so Theo lays off of Nate for even a short period of time.

Regardless, Theo is thrilled to have his new buddy Nate hang out with him all the time. Eventually they talk movies and Theo becomes adamant that Nate _has_ to see _101 Dalmatians_ , he _has_ to. And Nate’s explanation that he’d seen it but just couldn’t remember most of it isn’t enough for Theo. They pick a night, stock up on popcorn and pick out seats in the living room for watching the movie.

Since they’ve decided to be open with Theo about them dating, they enjoy snuggling up on the couch now, even when Theo jumps between them on the couch to share blankets and popcorn. During the beginning credits he explains to Nate, “The movie starts after this, you have to keep watching,” and Nate nods seriously at him, dutifully watching the screen.

Once the movie does start, Theo is watching him watch the movie, checking for reactions and telling him, “That dog kind of looks like Pearl but it’s a different kind of dog,” and “That’s Perdita, Pongo likes her.”

By the time Cruella deVil comes on screen, Tyson intercedes, “Theo, I think if Nate has a question he can ask you, but he’s trying to watch the movie, okay?”

His face falls a little as he settles back into the couch between them, “Okay.”

Nate shoots a judgemental look Tyson’s way, but all he does is send one back. But in no time at all, Nate’s asking, “Wait, is that puppy dead?”

Tyson opens his mouth to answer, but Theo bursts in quickly, “He’s not breathing - but the guy fixes him.” Then his gaze returns to the screen, riveted.

“That’s why they call him Lucky.” Tyson adds.

“Oh.”

They’re quiet for a while, although Nate does let out the occasional giggle, and Nate’s slid his arm over to Tyson on the back of the couch so he can play with the hair on the back of his neck. When the puppies reach the barn with all the cows, Nate tries to make a joke with Theo, but instead whispers to Tyson, “He’s asleep.”

Turning to look at Theo’s face, Tyson sees that his eyes are closed, his face slack and peaceful as he’s leaned into Nate’s side, only his one hand is reaching out to rest on his dad’s arm next to him. “Yeah, he is. We should wait to move him until the movie’s over, though.”

“You think he’ll be mad if I miss the ending?”

“No, he’ll probably wake up when the movie’s over - he usually does.”

“Okay,” Nate says, settling back into the couch carefully to not disturb Theo.

When the movie does end, they wait a minute or two, but they keep checking and he’s fast asleep. “Okay, I guess I’m carrying him to bed.” Tyson sighs, moving the popcorn and getting up from the couch.

“Did you want me to?” Nate asks quietly.

“No, carrying him’s not the problem, it just means he’s not going to the bathroom before bed.”

Nate watches as Tyson carefully picks his son up and carries him off towards his bedroom. Then he stretches out on the couch, messing with the remote to flip through the channels on the tv until he finds a replay of an old NHL game. He leaves the tv on but mutes it as Tyson re-enters the living room.

“So that was a really good movie,” Nate says casually as Tyson climbs on top of him to lie down.

“Yeah, that’s why I let him watch it on repeat - it doesn’t drive me crazy.”

“He’s got good taste,” Nate says, and Tyson nods into his neck. “So he went to bed okay?”

“Yeah - he didn’t even wake up when I changed him into his pajamas.”

“He’s really out.”

“He’s really out,” he echoes in confirmation.

Nate kisses along his jawline and arches his hips up into Tyson. “So…”

Tyson makes an incoherent noise and then says, “We have to go to my room.”

They do, and since Nate didn’t bring his dogs over he’s not spending the night, so after a while they’re back out in the living room - Tyson in his pajamas and Nate back in the clothes he wore over - saying an extended goodnight. At some point they sat back down on the couch, Nate’s hands already back underneath Tyson’s sleep shirt. Then they hear, “Daddy?” echoing down the hall, and they untangle themselves quickly, Tyson laying down on the couch, but Nate looks around toward the hallway. “Daddy?” Theo’s voice wavers as he calls out again.

“Theo? What is it bud?” Nate stands so Theo can see him, and there are tears in his eyes as he comes all the way toward Nate, clinging onto his legs. “Hey,” he says, squatting down so he’s eye level with Theo, hugging him. “What’s the matter?” he asks gently.

Theo’s tears flow freely now and he blubbers, “I - dreamed - that - Daddy -” he takes an extra big breath, “Daddy died and I was alone!” He takes some more shuddering breaths, working himself up and crying harder. Nate just pulls him into a tight hug, letting his shirt soak up the tears and rubbing his back soothingly.

Maybe five minutes later, Theo’s breathing’s evened out and he’s sitting on the floor in Nate’s lap, face buried into his shoulder still. “Theo,” Nate starts quietly, “I want you to know that even if Daddy’s gone I’ll be here, okay?” He nods, so he goes on, “Plus you have Aunt Veebs and your mom and Grandma and Grandpa - and _Pearl_.” Theo giggles a little, and it urges Nate on. “But Daddy’s not going anywhere. He’s just lying on the couch - asleep! Do you wanna poke him?”

Theo looks at Nate, unsure, then says, “Yeah,” getting up and walking to the other side of the couch, where Tyson is dutifully pretending to be asleep. Instead of poking his arm or shaking him a little, Theo pokes his dad in the face so hard it makes Tyson yelp, “Ow!”

“Daddy, are you okay?” he asks earnestly.

“You just poked me,” Tyson responds, sitting up, moving his jaw around experimentally.

“Are you okay?” He repeats, leaning in as close to Tyson’s face as possible.

“Yes, Theo, I’m fine - my face just hurts where you poked it.”

“Okay,” he responds, and Nate can see his eyes fill with tears and his face scrunch up, so he interrupts.

“Why don’t you get back to bed, bud? I’ll help you get ready.”

Theo half-shrugs, even as Nate grabs his hand, leading him back down the hall to the bathroom before they do anything else. Once they move on, Tyson can hear the quiet sound of Nate reading a story or two; he sees Theo’s light switch off, and then for what feels like a long while - nothing. When Nates walks quietly back into the living room he says, “He’s asleep again.”

Tyson gets up and gives him a kiss, “Now I _really_ want you to spend the night.

Nate kisses him back, then says, “Can’t. My dogs are home alone.”

“You could’ve brought them over.”

“Maybe next time. Or,” he emphasizes, tightening his arms around Tyson’s waist, “you could come over to my place - you and Theo and Pearl.”

He ‘hmm’s and bites his lip, considering. “I mean, I guess. We can talk about it.”

“Yeah, we’ll figure out the details later,” he says, giving Tyson another kiss, “‘Night.”

Tyson follows him to the door, “Goodnight.”

\---

It’s the morning after one of the times Nate sleeps over, dogs in tow, that he asks Theo at the breakfast table, “So has your dad talked to you about having a sleepover at my place?” in spite of the vigorous hand motions Tyson’s doing behind Theo’s back. And it turns out _no_ he _hasn’t_ , but Theo’s thrilled at the possibility before Tyson talks him down a little, reminding him about how he’s going to a friend’s sleepover soon and the sleepover at the museum, and Uncle Gabe said something about maybe he and Aunt Mel wanted you to spend the night with them and Zoey. So even with Nate’s sour face, Tyson explains that he wanted to sleepover himself first before talking to Theo about it.

Nate and Tyson snipe at each other for a bit over it, even as they go to the dog park and run errands together throughout the week. Once the weekend comes, though, and they drop off Theo at Uncle Gabe’s house as they go to dinner, they’re back in good spirits, teasing each other and talking easily. Sometime during the middle of their meal (when the server comes to refill their wine), they realize it’s the first real, conventional date they’ve had, even though it feels more like an anniversary, which is what they end up telling the waitstaff to get a free dessert.

What might have felt even more first date like in going home to Nate’s house instead of Tyson’s is offset by the responsible way they go back to get Pearl and all of her dishes and her bed and her leash, and then setting it all up in Nate’s kitchen with the other dog stuff. And unlike their first few unofficial dates they don’t fall straight into bed. Instead, Nate gives Tyson the grand tour of his place, and they end up talking over his movies and his music for a while. Nate insists that _Homeward Bound_ is a classic that he and Theo would both love, and he defends the several different editions of Drake albums he has, putting one of them into his stereo. The music plays and Nate tries to rap along to a few lines, but mostly he dances like a dork in front of Tyson, who’s mostly nodding along and laughing at his boyfriend.

Eventually they do go to bed and end up cuddling and sleeping as late as the dogs will let them. It’s a very successful sleepover, Tyson tells Theo when he asks, and they sleep over a few more planned times without Theo, and no matter what they end up doing - a fancy dinner out, ordering pizza and hanging on the couch, or playing video games past midnight (it was a very intense game, with a bj on the line for the winner), it ends up working out. Pearl and Duke and Cox all have very different personalities, but get along well right away from all the time at the dog park. The room Theo would sleep in is smaller than his room, but it’s Nate’s office with a murphy bed, so they think the novelty should work on Theo so it’s not too bad.

Of course, once Theo starts coming along for sleepovers at Nate’s house everything is better and more exciting for him while everything else get more chaotic. Tyson ends up always carrying several of Theo’s outfits with him in his car, and the next time Nate and Tyson go to the pet store he grabs three extra sets of food and water bowls, leashes, and gets double the amount of food as usual. When Nate looks at him funny, holding a lone package of rawhides not yet in the cart, Tyson tells him “I’m just tired of dragging them along everywhere.” Nate grins at that, giving him a quick kiss before tossing another rawhide package into the cart.

Nate’s at the kitchen table working on some plans for his private clients, Theo sitting next to him doing some of his preschool worksheets and sharing his crayons when Tyson gets the call that his mom and dad are coming to visit. He tells Nate and Theo that they’ll be there in a week, and promptly starts texting with Victoria over how to introduce them to his new boyfriend.

Tyson’s parents come, spoiling Theo for a week straight as Nate charms his mom seemingly effortlessly, and as far as Tyson can tell, makes a good impression on his dad. Once they’ve left, Tyson doesn’t even ask before packing bags in the car and heading straight for Nate’s, just for a change of pace. Nate kisses him hello when he opens the door, and picks up Theo, putting him over his shoulder as they walk into his place, Pearl running inside before the door is shut. Eventually Nate asks, “Wanna watch _Homeward Bound_?” like he does every time they come over now, but Tyson tells him they can watch it the next time he comes over to their house.

Most of the night ends up spent playing on the floor with Theo and the dogs, or cuddling on the couch with Theo and the dogs and each other, or watching a hockey game on tv - and any other combination of those things. The most important thing that happens, though, is the way Tyson can feel himself reset, like everything is getting back to normal.

\---

When Nate comes to stay the night a few days later he pulls out a dvd case from his overnight bag (he doesn’t really need to bring one anymore, so many of his clothes are already here along with duplicates of all his toiletries) almost as soon as he comes inside. “We’re going to watch it tonight and you guys are going to love it.” His dogs bound toward the back door and Nate opens it for them before turning back to Tyson, who’s going through his bag to see what else he brought, and Theo, whose eyes are glazed over as he looks out the window.

He walks over to Theo sitting at the table, kissing him on the head. “Hey bud, you ready for movie night?”

“What?” Theo says after a second, confused.

“Are you ready for movie night?” he repeats. Theo just shrugs and looks back down at his coloring book, very slowly coloring in the sun. Nate looks up at Tyson, who shrugs coming back from putting Nate’s bag in his room. “Theo, are you feeling okay?”

Theo shrugs again. “I’m tired.”

Tyson walks into the kitchen, feeling Theo’s forehead with his hand and kissing the top of his head. “Do you want to try and eat dinner or just go to bed?”

He looks back towards Nate before saying, “I wanna watch the movie.”

But Tyson shakes his head. “I think you need to go to bed early so you feel better.”

“Okay,” Theo says, and starts to slowly put his crayons back in the box.

“Bud, how about I put away for coloring while you get ready for bed with Daddy.”

He sighs, “Okay,” and slowly gets down off the chair, heading down the hallway, Tyson following him after sharing a concerned, eyebrows raised look with Nate, who’s now sitting at the table, gathering up crayons.

The coloring books and crayons don’t take very long for Nate to assemble, but he does have to try a few different places before he finds the right spot to put them away. He hears Tyson’s voce still talking, so he makes his way down the hall to Theo’s room where he sees him climbing into bed, and Duke jumping up onto Theo’s bed to lie down next to him.

“Just in time for stories,” Tyson says when Nate enters, grabbing a book off the shelf.

Theo’s eyes are already heavy when he asks, “Nate, can you read it?”

Nate smiles at him, “How about Daddy reads one and I read one?”

He agrees, and Nate gets a side-glare from Tyson, but after some discussion, Theo agrees to the two stories and settles back, one hand on Duke as Tyson starts to read his picture book. Theo’s eyes are glazed over almost entirely by the end, and he has to keep blinking when Nate takes up and begins to read his book. He stumbles over a few words and loses his place a few times in the reading, but once he finishes the book Theo is fast asleep.Tyson pulls his blanket up around him as Nate puts the books back on the shelf before they both tiptoe out of his room.

“Do you think he’s sick?” Nate asks, pulling dinner ingredients out of the fridge.

“I hope not, but maybe getting extra sleep will help if he’s getting a cold or something.”

“Yeah, that should help - my mom’s always telling me to sleep more when I don’t feel good.”

“Speaking of your mom - is this that recipe you want to make when she and your dad come visit? I don’t want them to get food poisoning the same day they meet me.”

Nate throws a towel at him and they go on to make and eat dinner together before they cuddle on the couch with Nate in control of the remotes after putting in the dvd.

“I have seen this movie before, Nate,” Tyson says as Pearl jumps up and into his lap.

“Yeah, but do you remember it?”

Tyson bites his lip, “Uh, doesn’t a dog die?”

Nate scoffs, “ _No_ ,” and turns on the movie.

Whenever Tyson tries to ask a question at the beginning of the movie, Nate shushes him until the animals all leave the ranch. Then he whispers some clarifications to Tyson about the questions he’d asked, and then he’s more okay with Tyson interrupting. Although every time Tyson moves to kiss Nate, or he intentionally lets his hands wander, Nate kisses back, then pulls away, removing Tyson’s hands, telling him, “We’re watching the movie,” which makes him laugh and try again a few scenes later.

When the movie trio comes upon the crying little girl though, leading her family back to her, Tyson finds himself wiping tears out of the corners of his eyes. “Jesus, warn the dad of a young kid in the room.”

Nate smiles at Tyson, wiping his eyes and kissing him on the cheek. “Happy tears, right?”

“Shut up.”

Nate gives him another kiss as he sniffles, and they make it to the movie’s ending without incident. As Shadow appears over the top of the hill, Tyson looks over at Nate to say something, and sees that he’s crying - and not just the small spring of tears Tyson had, but tears streaming all the way down his cheeks. He notices that Tyson’s looking at him and says, “He’s such a good dog. He’s so smart, y’know?”

Tyson smiles at him and kisses him on the cheek. “I love you.”

Nate turns away from the screen, looking at Tyson, and exhales, “Oh thank God.” Tyson laughs at the response and the absolute relief on his face. “I love you too.”

He finds himself wiping tears out from the corners of his eyes as he laughs at Nate, sitting beside him, smile wide and open and so, so relieved. “Well, good.”

“I mean, I’ve loved you since before I kissed you, I had to stop myself from saying it everyday.” He leans in and gives Tyson a slow, soft kiss. “I love you,” he repeats, keeping his face close to Tyson’s.

Tyson breathes in steadily, “I love you too,” and he kisses him back, slow and soft.

“I love you and I want to marry you,” Nate whispers practically into Tyson’s skin, which makes Tyson smile on Nate’s lips. “Sorry,” Nate mumbles out, “That was supposed to stay in my head.”

He tries to chuckle at himself, but Tyson’s shaking his head, climbing into his lap. “Well, Nate, I have to meet your parents first.”

Nate actually laughs, wrapping his arms around Tyson, pulling him close. “Shut up,” he says, kissing him again, and again, and again.

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> LISTEN. I know we all want the continuation of this story where Nate opens his own hockey school with Jost as one of the instructors that Tyson sort of gets jealous of, but then he meets Jost's partner JT and is like "oh" and then they bond over the adoption process because Theo will get a baby sibling and also hijinks with Uncle Gabe (Tyson's ex) and EJ (Nate's ex) becoming bffs. But you know... hindsight is 20/20, and I did not think of any of those better ideas until after I had finished the fic. I'm sorry. I will not be writing that. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this though!


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